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Family Upgrade: Moomba Kanga to Malibu 20VTX


LakePTDoc

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New To TMC and looking towards learning more and many more years of fun with my new (to me) Malibu 20VTX
 

The past month has been whirlwind!  My wife and I have been in the market for a new boat (on the 5 year plan) for a while.  I grew up around lots of different boats, wakes, and water sports in general and when I decided to buy my own boat I bought a 1998 Moomba Kanga in August 2007.  That boat has been taken care of and helped make many memories.  I met my wife in that boat, several hours of our kids playing in the boat, teaching my friends to wakeboard and surf behind that boat,  spending time with my dog Titan who loved the lake, and learning how to be a better driver and rider behind the boat.  This was a hard decision for us, and in the end we felt the DD no longer met our needs as a family without significant compromises and it was time to Upgrade.  
 

I have been researching for several months now and finally decided on a Malibu 20VTX.  We did not intend to buy so quickly but thanks to a post my friend found we found a great deal, even for a normal year, that we can’t wait to get.  We live in Oklahoma and the 20VTX is hard to find around here so I knew I would have to look out of state.  So on Friday we will except delivery of our 2016 20VTX.  This will be such an upgrade over our old boat and looking towards what new memories and progression of skills the boat will allow.  
 

We actually got lucky and once we had an offer on the 20VTX the following week we posted the Moomba and within 2 weeks we had a new owner for the Moomba.  The fun part was that the Moomba will be his first boat and one he hopes to learn with and was super excited to purchase it.  This helped selling the boat.  It is always hard selling your first boat, car, etc. due to the memories. 
 

So we sold the old boat last Sunday and will take delivery on the new boat on Friday.   We can’t wait and will probably spend the weekend on the lake learning the new boat and enjoying everything that makes a Malibu a Malibu.  I have been interested in buying a Malibu for several years now, and even made a Malibu inspired endo board when they first came out.  So my family and I can’t wait for this weekend!  Thanks to ahopkins for answering my many questions and ski videos to help make the decision on a boat cross country.  

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Beautiful boat!  (And I hate to sound like  a Nevous Nellie, but I would not have a little person that close to the rope/pylon when someone is waterskiing.  Snapback of the rope is a real thing)

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Thanks guys.  Wasn’t skiing that hard, just wanted to get a feel but thanks.  Been thinking about one of the shock tubes to reduce Snapback but wasn’t sure how effective it would be.  This was a picture of the starter.  

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Does the new boat have one or two batteries? It doesn’t look like you have a big stereo I’m surprised it would drain dead. 
 

What was the thought process with the starter?

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That happened when I hooked a jump starter onto one of the batteries, may have been on the wrong terminals.  I tried jumping on the first battery, nothing happened and then switched to the second battery and tried again and this was the result.  As for the dead batteries.  I think we only had one working battery to begin with.  Did not check before taking out on Saturday.  The battery was probably drained from running pumps and radio throughout the day while the boat was off and not lots of run time between pulling people.  

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And luckily the local dealer had a starter in stock, which was the same price as on Bakes.  So will have it in hand tomorrow and everything back together.

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3 hours ago, LakePTDoc said:

Been thinking about one of the shock tubes to reduce Snapback but wasn’t sure how effective it would be.  

They work well, especially where your pylon is.  I used to use one skiing 32 off and less, but even then there was the occasional flying handle.  But worth it for you methinks.

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1 hour ago, Eagleboy99 said:

Not marine rated - not a good idea IMO.

It say's they exceed Marine ratings. Not sure if it is true. I called them on it originally, and they assured me they were.

Steve B.

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Hoping the starter fried vs other electrical components as I have heard other people do.  Will know more tomorrow or Saturday whenever I get to put the new starter in and take the boat to the lake.

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59 minutes ago, Steve B. said:

It say's they exceed Marine ratings. Not sure if it is true. I called them on it originally, and they assured me they were.

Steve B.

Some of them are for forklifts.  I am not saying they are lying, but if they do not explicitly say "SAE J1171" on them, they are not marine rated.  Should an incident occur, rest assured your insurer will ask.  DB Electrical has lots of specific marine rated starters so these... I dunno.

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I’d also pull both batteries and have them bench tested / replaced. I’ve never seen a starter fry from hooking up a set of jumpers to a battery. 

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Great looking boat!  Congrats.  Hope the electrical issues fixes are all hassle free.  I did something like that on my old boat and recall frying the starter, and I want to say I fried a cell in the battery.  Glad to hear you are doing batteries also.  After that incident, I always make sure I am the one installing the cables on both vehicles.

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Replaced the starter and both batteries And everything cranked over and ran right on the hose.  Doesn’t appear to be any other electrical issues.  The battery I hooked onto when the starter burned up appeared to be leaking some battery acid from where the top and bottom of the casing meet.  This was also a battery that appeared to be flooded in the battery box, so not sure how long that had been that way or if the water froze around the battery.  So may have been a perfect storm.  Time to take it out tomorrow and have fun!

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Everything ran like it should today no battery issues.  Had a weird wind today, when we were cruising it was rough, when we were surfing it was calm.  So no skiing or wakeboarding today.  But had a blast surfing.  

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